


Death Bringer

by snowpuffle



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Afterlife, Character Death, Confusion, Fluff, Heaven & Hell, It's not really sad, M/M, Purgatory, Soulmates, They're all dead, concept that death comes in whatever shape or size you deserve, cus they are soulmates in this, frank's reaper looks like gerard, gerard's reaper looks like frank, like the black parade
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-07-24 11:16:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16173965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowpuffle/pseuds/snowpuffle
Summary: Frank's reaper is not what he expected. Dark hair, pointy nose, cute smile. Thick eyelashes and tiny teeth. Black eyes.The black eyes settle on Frank.





	1. Frank

The first thing Frank notices is the potent smell of lemon. His eyes are burning, the white light blinding even behind his eyelids, so he keeps his eyes shut. Soft beeps echo around the room, and Frank wonders why he can’t feel the lower half of his body. He lies still, gathering his thoughts, until the soft squeak of a door opening forces him to open his eyes.

 

Everything is white. White linoleum floor, white walls, white tiled ceiling. White bed sheets, white furniture, white hospital gown. But, the person walking in is wearing black. Black coat, black jeans, black boots. Black hair, black nails, black .. eyes?

 

“Hel- hi. Hello. Do you know why I’m here?” Frank’s voice is barely there, the sound scraping against his swollen throat.

 

The black eyes settle on Frank. 

 

“Hello Frank.” A soft, high-pitched voice, not at all what Frank expected. “I’m here to collect you.”

 

“Collect me? Do I know you?”

 

The person just sighs, and takes a seat at the end of the hospital bed. Frank would tuck his legs up if he could move them, at all.

 

“I’m a reaper, Frank.” Frank just stares into unblinking, black eyes, eventually tracing the outline of his lips and nose.

 

He says, “Don’t get distracted,” and Frank can only blush as he continues, “Sometimes I’m terrifying. Rapists, murderers, they’re the kind that get to see gruesome versions of me.” 

 

“But, you look sweet. Kind. You can’t be  _ death _ .” 

 

“You’ve lived a good life, Frank. An honest one. Death comes in all shapes and sizes, and they probably needed to make sure I could deliver it in mercy as well.” 

 

“They?”

 

“You’ll see soon enough.”

 

Frank gulped, but the thing in front of him was smiling sweetly, and Frank couldn’t help but smile back. 

 

“You’re lucky, Frank. I’m almost certain I look like your soulmate right now. I know it’s not fair that you never got to meet him, but I’ll make sure you will, one day.”

 

“My soulmate?”

 

Maybe he  _ was _ lucky, if this person was his soulmate. The reaper stands and moves to the head of the bed, next to Frank’s face. Frank closes his eyes as he bends down, leaving a featherlight kiss on his forehead.

 

“The kiss of death. Rad.” Frank whispers, smiling to himself. 

 

The death bringer in the shape of his soulmate shakes his head, laughing quietly. “Gerard was made for you.”

 

And then Frank is gone.


	2. Gerard

Gerard's lying flat on the concrete, but the other person is standing. Not moving, barely noticed by the countless others rushing around the scene, and staring at Gerard. The red and blue flashes of light from police sirens cast shadows on his face, all sharp angles and pale skin, and black eyes. If Gerard’s neck wasn’t bleeding at an alarming rate, then he would’ve crawled away as the figure walked forward, but things don’t always work out the way you want them to.

 

“Who are you?”

 

“A reaper. I’ve come to collect you.” The person was towering over him, shiny black boots parallel to Gerard’s shoulders.

 

Gerard tried to laugh, but the circumstances made it strenuous at best. “Like the Grim Reaper? Yeah, right.”

 

“I didn’t think it would be so soon, Gerard.”

 

“Fuck off. Could you get the EMT over here? In case you couldn’t tell, I’m _dying."_

 

“Frank was a lot calmer than you. More accepting.”

 

“You expect me to accept my own _death?”_

 

The reaper thinks for a minute. “I believe it was because he had already given up hope.”

 

The blood was becoming too much for the fabric under Gerard’s hand to absorb, a dark pool of the liquid forming on the concrete against his back. Cold sweat covered his entire body, and it was getting increasingly difficult to breathe.

 

“Hope for what?”

 

“Hope that he would meet his soulmate.”

 

Gerard almost rolled his eyes. “Look, I don’t know who this Frank guy is, but I haven’t met _my_ soulmate yet, so if you could let me get back to it-”

 

“He was your soulmate. I look like him right now. You must’ve been a decent enough person for me to come to you like this.”

 

By now his attention wasn’t fully there, struggling to keep his eyes open to continue staring at the figure above him, but he couldn’t fight the painful sensation that bloomed in his chest as the reaper continued to speak.

 

“You’re broken-hearted, as some would say. Although, I can see that it is just the absence of your other half that slowly kills you. You still walk in this body, whichever vessel nature has given you, but the host has died without being noticed. You’re an empty shell, Gerard.”

 

 _Your soulmate is dead,_ is all Gerard could think. _And you will be too._

 

“Then get it over with.” His eyes were closed now, and his breaths were shallow and quick, but the fear he’d felt was no longer there. All that was left in his chest was a dull ache, mortal wounds aside.

 

His dead soulmate’s doppelganger knelt down to hold Gerard’s head between his palms. “I promised him you’d eventually be together. Don’t let him think I didn’t deliver on that promise, Gerard.”

 

And then Gerard was being kissed, not chastely, but softly as he began to lose his life. His last thoughts were hopeful, and he hoped that his soulmate was truly this good a kisser.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the reaper had a soft spot for Frank, but he's got shit to do, so i made sure he wasn't *as* sweet with Gerard
> 
> also i didn't want to fully spoil how either of them died, cus they're probably gonna talk about it in the afterlife or wherever they both end up


	3. The Waiting Room

Pain. Oh Gods, all Gerard could feel was the pain, drowning him in waves of unconsciousness until he could no longer remember who he was. If the searing heat didn't tip him over the edge, the sharp whipping sensations that ripped through his body at regular intervals made sure that he was too far gone to think.

 

Persistent voices whispered unintelligible things, the cool breaths hissing in his ears a relief in contrast to the blaze surrounding him. Not once did he open his eyes, but it wouldn’t have made a difference if he was even  _ able to. _

 

For all he knew, he could have been there for  _ months. _ Time didn't seem important, because at no point did the pain cease and the darkness swallow him. It would have been a welcome mercy.

 

Was this hell? Memories were being plucked from behind his eyes, one by one, the fragile webs of thought extricated from his mind like taffy being pulled. Purgatory, perhaps? Somebody needed to see his past, and they weren't bothering to make sure Gerard was comfortable.

  
  


And then

The pain

Stopped.

  
  


And Gerard woke up to a warm hand gripping his own, and a soft pillow under his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> do ya think he made it to a good place? or nah?


	4. Unfamiliar Places, Welcoming Faces

“You _what?_ Purgatory? I just came straight here!” Frank leaped up from his seat to grab the white telephone against the wall, while Gerard did his best not to think about the absence of his soulmate’s hand in his. _Soulmate._ It would take a while to get used to the butterflies zipping around in his stomach whenever he thought of Frank as his soulmate.

 

“It sucked,” Gerard croaked, “I don’t really know what it was.”

 

Waking up in a strange place was disconcerting enough; the not-so-masculine scream Gerard had let out was completely acceptable when there was a stranger’s sleeping head resting over your hand.

 

Frank had done a decent job at calming him down and explaining the situation, like how it was unusual for Frank to be brought straight here but he had a friend in a high place, and that although it sucks that Gerard died and went to Purgatory at least now they could meet each other - Gerard had snorted at Frank’s poorly concealed excitement as he tried to appear nonchalant.

 

Gerard twiddled his thumbs from the huge four-poster bed, staring at the white comforter tucked around his body. He’d somehow changed into a fluffy, black robe, (he hoped it was by supernatural causes - having an orderly dress him would still be humiliating in the afterlife) but Frank was dressed in a white t-shirt and jeans. Everything around him was white and it made him feel out of place, like a stray drop of ink on an otherwise blank canvas.

 

Frank ranted into the receiver, “What do you _mean?_ This is, like, super uncool of you dude.”

 

Gerard wondered who Frank could be talking to and whether he spoke so informally to authority all of the time. Frank hung up the phone, sighing frustratedly as the phone bounced off of the hook and dangled sadly just above the ground.

 

“Who was that?” Gerard asked.

 

“The reaper - he’s the friend in the high place,” Frank clarified when Gerard’s eyes widened, “He said he’s sorry he didn’t bump you up past Purgatory, but the last time he did it with me he had to go through a bunch of judicial hearings and law crap, and he couldn’t be bothered.”

 

“Oh.” _I have no idea what that means,_ he thought, “I don’t think he was too fond of me, anyway,” Gerard shrugged, and Frank laughed.

 

Frank came to sit down next to Gerard again, and Gerard automatically stuck his hand out for Frank to grab - he froze at the last second because, well, they’d only just met - and he was grateful when Frank just smiled and locked their fingers together on the bed.

 

“This place is kinda… strict, I guess,” He started, and Gerard nodded, “This is my room, and everything’s white ‘cus we’re in Caelum. You’re in black because you’re my other half, which they call Infernum - like Yin and Yang? Except it doesn’t really mean one of us is good and one of us is evil, just that we have different roles here.”

 

Frank went on to explain that Caelum and Infernum were typically kept separate, each sector divided into hundreds of different divisions, with the exception of soulmates who had found each other. Not many people had actually found their soulmates, and the chances of being sorted into the same division as your soulmate were already thin, so the majority of the afterlife’s residents were bitter and lonely.

 

“We’re all given ‘roles’ because this is technically a second life; they’re like jobs. We still need food, water, and we want to avoid, uh, death, because if we die again it’s all over.” Frank smiled reassuringly and squeezed Gerard’s hand, who was still processing the information provided.

 

Questions raced through his mind, but they were all too jumbled for him to articulate. _A second life? Doing what?_

 

“Gerard? Are you okay?”

 

Gerard nodded slowly and took a minute to study Frank’s features as he looked on with eyes full of concern. Dark hair to his shoulders fell over his face, and small curls clung to the base of his neck. Gerard wished he wasn’t so pasty because the green in Frank’s eyes _really_ complimented his tanned skin and Gerard was a little jealous. Just beneath the collar of his shirt, Gerard could see something black on the skin of Frank’s collarbone, but before he could ask about it, Frank was speaking again.

 

He seemed apprehensive but reached forward to cup Gerard’s jaw, brushing his thumb over his cheek as he smiled, “I know it’s a lot to process, but you don’t have to worry about all of it right now. You can sleep for a while longer, and I’ll show you everything when you wake up.”

 

“Okay,” Gerard whispered, voice caught in his throat as he hyper-focused on Frank’s hand.

 

Frank stood up to leave, but Gerard grabbed his wrist, quickly asking, “Could you stay?”

 

With a nod, Frank sat down again and propped his head upon his hand, his elbow crinkling the duvet. Gerard fell asleep quickly, with Frank humming softly in the chair beside him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hopefully the chapters will be a little bit longer from now on :)


End file.
